Online Reporter
DUBAI. − For, at least, US$1,000 a night one can get a woman, who can do “pretty much everything” which one demands, at Dubai’s sex parties. At least, one client even has a bizarre request − defecating on the women he hires.
The man running the sex ring, which operates out of the emirate’s most glamorous neighbourhoods, and is exploiting vulnerable women, has been identified. Charles Mwesigwa, who says he is a former London bus driver, told undercover BBC reporters he could provide women for a sex party at a starting price of US$1,000, adding that many can do “pretty much everything” clients want them to.
At least, one of Mwesigwa’s clients regularly asks to defecate on the women, according to “Mia”, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, and who says she was trapped by Mwesigwa’s network. Mwesigwa denies the allegations.
He says he helps women find accommodation through landlords, and that women follow him to parties because of his wealthy Dubai contacts.Rumours of wild sex parties in the UAE emirate have circulated for years.
The hashtag #Dubaiportapotty, which has been viewed more than 450 million times on TikTok, links to parodies and speculative exposés of women accused of being money-hungry influencers secretly funding their lifestyles by fulfilling the most excessive of sexual requests.Our BBC World Service investigation was told the reality is even darker.
Young Ugandan women told us they had not expected to have to undertake sex work for Mwesigwa.In some cases, they believed they were travelling to the UAE to work in places like supermarkets or hotels.
We have also discovered that two women linked to Mwesigwa have died, having fallen from high-rise apartments. Although their deaths were ruled as suicides, their friends and family feel the police should have investigated further. Mwesigwa said the incidents were investigated by the Dubai police and asked us to contact them for information. They did not reply to our request.
One of the women who lost her life, Monica Karungi, arrived in Dubai from western Uganda.She found herself sharing a flat with dozens of other women working for Mwesigwa, according to one of the women, who we are calling Keira, who says she lived with Monica there in 2022.
“[His] place was like a market… There were like 50 girls. She was not happy because what she expected is not what she got,” Keira told us.Monic thought the job in Dubai was going to be in a supermarket, according to her sister Rita.
“He [Mwesigwa] was violent when I told him I wanted to go back home,” says Mia, who also knew Monica in Dubai. She says that, when she first arrived, he told her she already owed him £2,000 and that within two weeks that debt had doubled.
“Money for air tickets, for your visa, for where you’re sleeping, food,” says Mia.”That means you have to work hard, hard, hard, pleading for men to come and sleep (with) you.”
Monica owed Mwesigwa more than US$27,000 after several weeks, according to what a relative of hers we are calling Michael says she told him. He adds that he received tearful voice notes from her.Mia told us that clients were mostly white Europeans, and included men with extreme fetishes.
“There’s this one client, he poops on girls. He poops and he tells them to eat the s**t,” she explained quietly.Another woman we are calling Lexi, who says she was tricked by a different network, echoed Mia’s story, saying “porta potty” requests were frequent.
“There was a client who said: ‘We pay you 15,000 Arab Emirates Dirham (US$4,084 to gang-rape you, pee in your face, beat you.” Her experiences have led her to believe there is a racial element to this extreme fetish.
“Every time I said that I wouldn’t want to do that, it seemed to get them more interested. They want somebody who is going to cry and scream and run. And that somebody (in their eyes) should be a black person.” Lexi says she tried to get help from the only people she thought could intervene − the police. But she says they told her: “You Africans cause problems for each other. We don’t want to get involved. And they would hang up.”
We put this allegation to the Dubai police and they did not reply. Lexi eventually escaped back to Uganda and now helps to rescue and support women in similar situations.
Finding Charles Mwesigwa wasn’t easy. We could only find one picture of him online − and it was taken from behind. He also uses multiple names across social media.
But through a combination of open-source intelligence, undercover research, and information from a former member of his network, we traced him to a middle class neighbourhood in Dubai − Jumeirah Village Circle. To corroborate what sources had told us about his business − supplying women for degrading sex acts − we sent in an undercover reporter posing as an event organiser sourcing women for high-end parties.
Mwesigwa appeared calm and confident when speaking about his business.”We’ve got like 25 girls,” he said. “Many are open-minded… they can do pretty much everything.”
He explained the cost − from US$1,000 per girl per night, but more for “crazy stuff”. He invited our reporter for a “sample night”. When asked about “Dubai porta potty” he replied: “I’ve told you, they are open-minded. When I say open-minded… I will send you the craziest I have.”
In the course of the conversation, Mwesigwa said he used to be a London bus driver. We have seen evidence he put that occupation down on an official document in east London in 2006. He went on to tell our reporter that he loved this business.
“I could win the lottery, a million pounds, but I would still do it… it’s become part of me.” Troy, a man who says he used to act as operations manager for Mwesigwa’s network, gave us more information about how he says it is run.
He says Mwesigwa pays off security at various nightclubs so they will let his women in to find clients.” I’ve heard about types of sex that I’ve never seen in my life. It doesn’t matter what you go through as long as his rich men are happy… (the women) have no escape route…They see musicians, they see footballers, they see presidents.”
Mwesigwa has been able to get away with running this operation, Troy claims, because Troy and others are not just used as drivers. He says their names are also used by Mwesigwa to hire cars and apartments, so that his own name never appears on the paperwork.
On 27 April 2022, Monica posted a selfie from Al Barsha − a residential neighbourhood popular with expats in Dubai. Four days later, she was dead. She had been in the emirate for just four months.
According to Mia, Monica and Mwesigwa had been regularly arguing in the period before she left.
Mia says Monica had been refusing to comply with Mwesigwa’s demands and had found a way out of his network. Monica’s death shares haunting similarities with that of Kayla Birungi, another Ugandan woman who lived in the same neighbourhood as her, and died in 2021 after falling from a Dubai high-rise apartment which we have evidence to suggest was managed by Charles Mwesigwa.
The phone number for her landlord, shared with us by Kayla’s family, turned out to be one of Mr Mwesigwa’s numbers. Troy also confirms that Mr Mwesigwa managed the apartment, as do four other women we spoke to for this investigation. The BBC contacted Al Barsha Police Station to request to see the case files for Monica Karungi and Kayla Birungi. It did not respond to that request or to allegations Monica and Kayla’s deaths had not been properly investigated.
The BBC was unable to see any toxicology reports in relation to Monica Karungi, or speak to the landlord of the apartment in which she was living when she died. − BBC
